Fight o' Flight
by TacoxocaT
Summary: PP version; Superhero AU— In which bellas' club, well beyond the realms of our possible imagination 300 years from now. Immersed in a world filled with endless hatred and bloodshed, would your response be both fight and flight?
1. Chapter 1

Superpower AU

Chapter 1

Beca was helplessly in love.

No, as a matter of fact, that was probably an understatement. The amount of love possible within her heart is beyond definable. She had tried numerous times to push her feelings away, to claw at the useless memories but failed, with no avail. Chloe will never be hers and there is nothing she can do about it.

So she does what she always does. She sits at the corner of the club, quietly sipping her drink. While staring blankly at Chloe with a dazed smirk, knowing that the echoes of the bellas' laugh and her smiling features will be the last thing on her mind before she goes to sleep; and the first thing that pops up when she awakes.

The image of the tall, stronger man who has his lips leeched onto Chloe and sucking the plain air out of the girl as well. Tom will be engraved into his hypothalamus, refusing to leave, never leaving. Not as a memory, but merely as an evil, inescapable spell, a reminder that Chloe will never love her.

Morning has come.

"I am simply suggesting that you stop goofing around and get some actual work done, our next competition is less than 3 days away and you need to stop that over our last competition.

Emily's words came out cold and heartless against Beca's drumming ears, She quickly snakes a look at the clock. It's 2:35 pm in the afternoon. Groaning, She rolled over to her other side and tried to ignore her.

"Get up lazy ass, I don't have time for this." Emily screeched once again.

"Okay okay! I'm up, I'm up. Where are the others?" Beca outstretched her arms, rubbing over her eyes tiredly as she stifles a yawn; all the while falling back into the covers.

Emily rolled her eyes as she stuffed some bread into her mouth. "I don't really know, the rest of the world woke up six hours ago, what would Stacie and Amy be doing at this point on?"

"I'm assuming they're already out to practice then." Beca shrugged as she took a swig of strawberry milk.

Emily made an ick face, "No shit bad(ass)ice."

Beca frowned at the nickname, her power may be frost, but she would like to think that she's the warmest person of their group. Leaving the frost title to Emily would be more inappropriate.

"Whatever, listen I'm heading down now."

Emily snorted, "Well that's a surprise."

The rehearsal equipments is drastically different compared to the last time Beca's been here. She takes out her phone and tries to scroll through the calendar, how long has it been since she actually stepped foot in and trained instead of, drooling over Chloe?

Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by a very excited and scary looking Amy which was not a good combination.

"Shorty where have you been? Haven't seen you around in ages, medicine treating you well?"

the Dj frowned, _medicine? What medicine?  
_  
"Amy shut up! She doesn't know yet." Another voice emerged from the shadows; Beca naturally assumed that it was probably Stacie.

Amy giggled, her excitedness seeping through as she pounced back and forth. Kicking down plastic microphones and rolling towards the other side of the room.

Beca raised her eyebrows; _do I really want to know?_

Stacie pulled out a small packet of white substance, shoving it all up in Beca's face and laughing. "Calming the nerves baby! Best possible medicine around, can't get better than this. Makes you feel so amazingly lightheaded and free, with her by our side, the other fucking group won't know what hit them."

Of course, what Stacie pulled out was no other than, hormone overdose drugs.

Beca looked appalled, although deep inside, she wasn't surprised at all. She really didn't care to be quite honest; if her groupmates wanted to get fucked up before a big competition by the so-called "Trebles" and get kicked off the group, so be it. It's a good thing that she's not emotionally attached to anyone on her group so that no feelings will spring up if anyone did get kicked off.

So all she said was, "Does Tom know?"

Stacie laughed, a warm laugh that resonated the place, bouncing off the walls. "Hell to the no bro, if he knew, we'd be fucked up. That guy is so uptight about every little thing, such a little piece of pussy shit. He'd get all caught up in the technicality issues and the legal issues and what not. I don't even understand how he made it to be Chloe's. He's no better than the other group's prissy leader."

Beca chuckled lowly, Stacie was such an idiot. Jesse may look small, but his strength and powers are not to be joked around with. Considering that he beholds the power to possibly blow up this whole entire planet.

"Hey I know that we all underestimate Bumper because he's short and all, but give the patch-kid some credit, their group always manages to kick our asses at everything."

And when Stacie glared at Beca, she took a step back and shot up her arms defensively. "I'm just saying, maybe we should focus on rehearsals harder instead of getting high on those shit."

Stacie snorted, "Well, they're not going to be beating us much longer, their new leader is such a weakling. I heard that his powers are water and the ability to make waves flow. We're gonna beat them in no time. Besides, he only became leader because Bumper apparently has a soft side for his pathetic little fucks."

Beca nearly dropped the entire bag of white substance on his shoe when she heard the words that came out of Stacie's mouth. "Wait, did you say that he is Bumper's little fuck?"

Stacie glanced dazedly at Beca. She didn't really know if Beca had an angry or concerned expression on her face, so she merely muttered "Yeah,"

Beca ran faster when Cynthia unleashes her wind, all the way downstairs.

Aubrey's office was always dark, 'the way of being productive' as Aubrey called it. Despite the fact that Amy assumes she's probably just locked up in her office all day listening to rock songs, no one disturbs her anyways.

As Beca made her way downstairs, she jumped over the low gate and glanced around. Old, ripped posters of 80/90 American rock bands with tattoo designs and heavy metal band equipment hung up all around the walls, rock music resonating through the heavy bass speakers to the right side of the tiny office. Aubrey nowhere to be found.

She sighed, _why is Aubrey's office located almost 10 stories below the studio and better yet, how is this environment even properly equipped to be an office?_ Beca was starting to think that maybe Stacie was right, Aubrey was a terrible leader. She may not be "prissy ass pussy shit" as Stacie had described. But she definitely does not fit to be the role of 'leader', considering that she never even 'leaded' lucidly.

Shuffling noises echoed from the left side of the small office, as Beca stepped towards it, she suddenly remembered why Aubrey was the leader.

That arrogant bitch had a stare that could literally melt every single glacier that Beca had formed for fun back in her hometown, all 100,000 of them.

The element of Aubrey's stare that was terrifying, or as some observers called it, mesmerizing; was that it never failed to pierce through your soul. Aubrey had the power to literally beat all of the trebles with her heart-piercing gaze. It's both terrifying and agonizing to stare at, especially when Aubrey feels like transforming into her other form privately and those dark green scales rise up in her chest. Even if she never shows it in public, Beca had seen it enough times to know that the simplest of gestures can make his alter-ego arise.

"What do you want." The dry crackling screams that was initially suppose to be Aubrey's voice wrenched its way to the brunette's ears. She cringed, talking to Aubrey when she's like this is possibly the worst punishment ever for your inner cochlea.

"Whens the next time that you gotta go to one of those stupid trebles convention meetings? Is it soon?"

Aubrey's golden eyes narrowed into slits as she brushed at her tail with sharp claws. "Why do you ask? You know that no one is allowed to go with me."

"Yes, I know that." Beca started as she look down, _was she really going to give up on something this easily? No she couldn't, she had to at least try._ "But that's not the point, the point is that you're taking me, and I'm not taking no for an answer."

Aubrey strolled to the other side of the room, deep in thought. Beca was actually quite composed and silent most of the time, there must be a good reason why she would want to go so badly. Besides, she is the only member on their group that hasn't cracked under Aubrey in the past or spilled any secretive information, this was the perfect chance. And Aubrey wasn't going to let it slip.

"Yes is your answer, meet me here at 10."

And with that, Aubrey vanished into thin smoke and an open glaze of fire. Leaving little cracks of heat dancing on Beca's cheeks. Reminding her of the warm, tingly feeling on her skin whenever Chloe was around.

The 8 hours of waiting was absolutely agonizing for Beca. When the time finally rolled around, she found herself to be extremely apprehensive and giddy. Or maybe, just a mixture of both.

Aubrey had transformed back to her human self before they exited the studio garage. Knowing her, Beca estimates that it probably took her about 3 hours to just calm down and get herself composed before heading out to the general public.

The drove silently in the car. Aubrey's shiny black f430 Ferrari leading its way through the dark night, zooming across the city escape. Beca slouched down further into her hoodie and stared outside, with absolutely no thoughts in her mind except images of bubbly Chloe's smiling face and angelic laugh.

"I know that saying this is pretty much useless since you probably already know but, Chloe has Tom."

Beca torn her face away from the city lights and stared at Aubrey, "What's your point?"

Aubrey snorted, a puff of smoke coming out of her nostril as she leaned back into her seat. "All I'm saying is that you'll have better luck chasing after Emily, even if Cynthia has her tied up in a dreadful headlock."

Beca winced, Cynthia's protectiveness of Emily has been the talk of the fight between the group trebles and bellas ever since they came out last spring. Two rivals being in a secretive relationship, well, not anymore. Wasn't exactly rare since most of the guys on the other team probably just need a good fuck after so much sexual tension. But Emily and Cynthia's case was special; so special to a point that it shall only be bought up when the right circumstances arise.

"You really think I got no chance?" She muttered quietly.

Aubrey snorted again, "I never said that, but I do praise you for your continuous efforts. Someone on this team bound to figure out why you've been so depressed lately."

Beca just gawked at Aubrey. She mentally told herself to make a list after she gets back to the studio of reasons why Aubrey fits to be leader for future references, and how she might as well just steal Cynthia's power since she seems to be telepathic.

Ten minutes has passed, and they're still driving; until a shocking realization came to Beca.

"Wait, how do you know about Chloe and me?"

Aubrey shrugged. "Wasn't too hard to figure out, power attraction I guess. They say that if your powers are similar to someone else's, you'll probably be attracted to them right away with no ability to fight back. If your powers are exceptionally strong, the attraction will just be exceptionally strong. That's why you're such a valid member of our group, Beca."

Beca felt a warm feeling fill up in her chest, even if her power is frost. Aubrey had praised her for the first time in years. And it made sense she supposed, her and Chloe.

"Her power is water, and yours is frost. An almost perfect combination." Aubrey quipped.

Beca snapped out of her thoughts and glared at Aubrey, "Dude, you gotta stop reading my mind, quit pulling like Emily."

Aubrey smirked, "At least I'm not as annoying."

They drove another 5 minutes in silence.

"How strong is it?" Aubrey whispered.

Beca cranked her neck back to the blonde's face, "Come again?"

Aubrey cleared her throat. "I mean like, how strong is this attraction to Chloe? Seems pretty serious."

Beca wracked her brain for thoughts, "I'm not sure." She started, "It started 2 months ago at our last competition, I was on the sidelines getting ready to go against Cynthia when Chloe stepped out with Tom. I had never seen her before and she was just so delicate, and just a pure in my eyes. I kind of stalked her at the aca-initiation night over the past few weeks, and yeah it's pretty strong I would say, she's all that's in my mind."

Aubrey stared straight ahead, the deadening silence filling up the car again.

"Would you say that it's love?"

Beca looked away again, a slight blush was forming on her cheeks. "I-I don't know, I mean I like her and all, but I hardly think I understand what love means, and liking her in general is pretty dangerous to begin with since she's with Tom. So no, I don't think I love her."

Aubrey simply nodded, and continued driving without a word.

Beca gazed out the window, serious thoughts running through her mind. _Do I love Chloe? Was I even capable of loving someone? After all these years of joining the fight with the other group, love was the last thing anyone needed. Some people say that love can be experienced after having a good fuck or what not; but gang members and porn stars fling themselves at the group members all the time. Love after a good fuck was just out of the question. So no, I decided that I'm not in love with her. At least, not yet._  
 _But the important question is, will Chloe be at the leader's meeting? Or is Tom just using her as an object of his affection like Stacie said?_ _Did Tom truly give up his position to Chloe? All for love?_

The leader's meeting is just as boring as all the previous meetings Aubrey has been to. She sits in the front row. Right across from the trebles team leaders, with Justin standing in the middle of the auditorium, shushing everyone for the meeting to begin.

Beca squirmed beside Aubrey, her peripheral vision focused right on Chloe. Sitting directly across from her across the large auditorium floor, wearing gorgeous dress and with Tom by her side. Beca's fists tightened at the thought.

"Welcome, welcome! All leaders, friends, and groups enthusiasts! Thank you for joining us today." Justin roared into the microphone.

Rambunctious applause echoed throughout the room.

"Our next international competition is less than 3 days away. And this time, it's going to be a fight that will make history!" Justin shouted. Even more enthusiastically, if possible.

"We have our friends from over 45 different planets join us today for this meeting. In order for us to accommodate everyone, this meeting will span over the course of the next 5 hours. Yes, it will end at approximately 5am, and you're all expected to be here once again in less than 48 hours for the actual competition, are you readddddyyyyy?"

More applause.

Beca wrinkled her nose in disgust, what kind of a leader's meeting is this; She snuck a look at Aubrey.

Aubrey however, stared straight ahead, not a single bit of movement or emotion.

"I'm going to the restroom," Beca muttered.

The leader's meeting ended around 5am as promised. Beca was feeling so sleepy and tired that she literally fell into Aubrey's arms when they started walking back to the car. Aubrey, being the cold-hearted, stoned person she is; suggested that Beca wash her face with ice water so she can at least make the trip home without falling all over Aubrey's lap.

Beca mumbled "Selfish-bastard" before she made her way to the restroom for the second time of that evening.

When she first stepped in, she was so concentrated on washing her face and getting the fuck out of this boring building that she didn't notice another woman, hovering over the toilet. Possibly puking her guts out.

When she did notice, however, she tried to make a dash for the door, but it was too late.

Chloe was now standing in front of her, looking at her curiously with some left over vomit still staining her lips.

Beca gulped.

Aubrey crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against her car in the cold night air. _Where the fuck was Beca?_ _How long does it take to wash a fucking face for god sakes?_

She waited for another 20 minutes before she really started to get impatient, _What the hell is that idiot doing in the washroom? She better not be doing sexual stuffs._

Aubrey seriously considered just driving off and ditching her teammate when a loud explosion discharged about 50 meters from where she was standing.

She sharply turned around, cocking her head above the tall trees that was now beginning to fall down, bursting into flames. Aubrey quickly jumped over the large trees with her arms, almost falling as her wings were comforted behind her long sleeve shirt. She jogged up closer to the explosion and looked around.

A girl, or maybe a woman. Only a little bit shorter than her, walked out from a pile of smoke and crackling fire bits, face only meters away from Aubrey's.

Her eyes were on fire.


	2. Chapter 2

Aubrey was not pleased.

She ended up waiting 2 hours for Beca to return from the restroom, and when the girl did return, she had a love-struck, dazed smile plastered all over her face. Aubrey could tell that Beca was wide awake by now. She would inconsistently shake her legs from under her seat and squirm around, all while gushing about how she actually ended up talking to Chloe for more than 10 seconds and how they shared stories about their powers. About their hobbies and likes, and about how they control their powers when working together, blah blah blah.

While that was all very nice and fluffy, the girl who's eyes were on fire is all that lingers on Aubrey's mind. _Who is she? And why were her eyes on fire._

The bellas' club competition this year is different from every other year, all of the bellas team members could tell.

For one, the addition of all just added commotion to the endless crowd. People sprawled around in all directions, teammates under the rings, encouraging others or doing a few punches to warm up.

Aubrey took a quick glance at the club schedule. As per usual, the organizers always starts off the match with the bellas' and treble's team showoff. As these are the two strongest teams, a fact that no one can deny.

Amy is up first, and she is going against Donald. Aubrey snickered a little. Donald the soft-skinned boy with an adorable eye smile that make Lily swoon, all the while having the ability to mentally and physically blind his opponents with the light that he emits across the arena.

Aubrey knows for a fact that at least two members on each team have a special power, but most of the time, the power is either too strong or too dangerous to be used in public. On the bellas' team, there are four members who are not allowed to use their powers, which is why their team is so exceptionally strong. If Unicycle was to unleash his thunder, this entire city could be left in ruins. Amy's ability to control time has been unleashed once or twice before but only under very special circumstances. Such as that one time, when Aubrey's anger erupted and caused her to turn into her dragon form in public and almost eat a group of competition viewers. Therefore, Amy had to turn back time and erase everyone's memory.

Emily's ability to read minds and tell the future is only known by the Treble's and bellas' team. If the hosts found out about the legacy's real power, it's highly possible that she will be demolished and burned or frozen to death. The only reason why her real power was kept under wraps is because Cynthia insistently nagged Tom for about two weeks to keep the Treble's team secret hushed, begging her to allow Emily to still compete. Since everyone knows what happens to fighters when their abilities are not what they originally claimed to be.

Bottom line is, Aubrey is really glad that Beca and Stacie can showcase their powers. Its nice because they're both extraordinarily powerful. Even if Stacie can get really tipsy just by drinking water at points and tends to forget every single part of her game plan when she fights; at least she makes up for it by her spontaneous movements and ability to think quickly on the spot.

Speaking of Beca, where is she?

The first three quarters of the match goes exceptionally well for the bellas' team, everyone won their rounds effortlessly, with the exception of Amy. She almost lost it to Donald but managed to pull through in the last second by using brute force and kicking Donald so hard in the face that his light emitted into rays of red blood, splashing the entire ring. Stacie was obviously high on something, once again. As she literally shoved over one million gamma rays over her scars to heal them all the while constantly shoving Cynthia's winds back at her brutally. Emily was a bit mad at Stacie for hurting Cynthia but quickly forgave her later when she realized that they might win the Century Show-off International trophy a second later.

When it was Emily's turn to actually go, she showed no mercy for Benji. As the poor boy kept getting trapped inside Emily's telekinesis bubbles and desperately trying to escape by teleporting with no avail, only finding himself travelling to another bubble. In the end, his legs were so worn out that he merely collapsed inside the biggest bubble and had to be dragged out of the ring. Lastly, Jesse's performance was nothing but astounding. He literally blew up the entire arena will his powerful handclaps. Trapping each and every wave Chloe emitted between her fingers; all the while able to forcefully propel Chloe's waves back to him; causing him to be soaking wet and thrown outside of the competition.

"Did you guys fucking see that?! It's a good thing that you destroyed their prissy little leader Jesse, I bet their team's confidence level probably went down even their leader sucks. Now all we gotta do is wait for Aubrey to beat her opponent and that trophy is ours."

Beca rolled her eyes, Stacie must have taken an overdose of another drug before she competed.

Beca frowned at the competition schedule broadcasted above the large overhead as she stood in the arena. All by herself, all alone and

Where the fuck is her opponent? and better yet, who the fuck is her opponent?

The game board merely states 'Round 70: Bellas' leader vs. DSM's leader'

She looked up at the audience surrounding the arena, literally thousands of eyes wandering upon her every move with millions of eyes across the planets watching behind their respective screens. She tried to calculate the finished competitions inside her badass mind. Amy went against Donald, Stacie went against Cynthia, Emily went against Benji, and Jesse went against Chloe. Tom was sitting this competition out and so was Beca, then who is left on the treble's team?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud cheers of the crowd, and a girl standing behind the shadows, entire body erupting into flames

Aubrey quickly ducked as the flames threatened to tear her entire arm off her arm socket, she hissed as some of the flames got on her sleeves, burning deep holes within her flesh.

When she looked up, and was faced with possibly the beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

A fire phoenix, literally the size of the arena itself, sprung up from the girl's back as the flames swallowed her whole. The entire arena bursting into a delicious red organ-ish colour. The crowd went wild.

This time, Aubrey didn't even attempt to duck.

The flames flashed around her and tickled her skin dangerously, leaving burn marks all around her hypersensitive flesh. She felt the heat resonate through into her spinal cord, all the way deep inside her rib cage and through her veins. The delicious heat threatening to rip her entire body apart. If she doesn't retrieve from the flames, she will be reduced into ashes by no time. Since the hosts don't really care about who dies or survives anyways, her death will only be remembered through her teammates.

And ofcourse Aubrey couldn't let that happen.

At this point, she had two options.

She can dodge the girl's flames and rise all the way up so that she would have more force when the girl stops momentarily, allowing her to shoot down her flames. Pretending to escape when really, she was going to attack brutally. Or, she could just zoomed down and kill the girl right away. No regrets, no inhibitions, just the ultimate, fiery death to show this girl who the real fighter is.

Aubrey decided to go with the-escape-first-trick-then-attack-later strategy.

She sprung up from the flames, gangly wings and sharp scales ripping apart the seams of her suit, her eyes turning into a solid gold colour as sharp fangs and claws drew out of her flesh. Herself like hovering the entire area

She wasn't sure what was going on at this point, but all she could hear was the crowd's gasps and wild cheers.

Along with the look of surprise on the girl's face.

Aubrey smirked. Perfect, this will give them all a show.

She rosed up all the way around the arena, fire erupting from her insides as her body took smoke all around the ceiling. Crashing down several stage lights and sending them flying to the girl's head.

The girl swiftly ducked each and every light with grace, while some of the lights got burned off by her flames in the process, shattering into a million pieces and littering the entire stage. After trying every single attack mechanism Aubrey knows of, seeing that her methods have no effect on the girl at all, Aubrey beginning to feel angry. This was not the fight that she was hoping for. She felt extremely aggressive and suicidal, for god-knows-what-reasons. Suddenly, every single urge in her body just felt like plummeting down and thrashing this girl out of the arena. She felt humiliated, and betrayed by the fact that someone else, or just anyone else, can beat her at her own game. Aubrey wanted to rip the flesh off the girl's bones with her teeth and using her blood as a lubricant to sooth her aching arm with the flames that the girl threw at her.

 _Fucking little piece of shit._

Why Aubrey was so rough and aggressive at this point, she didn't know, All she knows is that this fight isn't over until one of them is dead, and she isn't going to become the dead one.

Abandoning all thoughts within her original plan to escape first and attack later when an opportunity arises, she decided to directly get this over with and kill the boy right away. Since her flames were at full capacity at the moment anyways.

So she plummeted down the arena with all the force in the world, cracking her wings inside her chest. Opening them as wide as possible, releasing all of the fire that she had stored up in her system for the past three years of no showing.

For about 10 seconds, the flames just kept rushing out, completely enveloping the other girl. So much that Aubrey was beginning to feel dizzy since all she can see is a piercing redness inside her golden eyes.

It's probably the longest 10 seconds of the blonde's life.

Suddenly, she sees the flames rise up, up, up, all above her entire dragon form, burning her scales in the most painful ways possible and threatening to torn apart her entire body. She gasps, puffs of smoke choking her throat, as the fire just keeps getting stronger and stronger, enveloping her completely and taking over her sympathetic nervous system.

The last thing she sees is redness, the last thing she hears is silence, and the last thing she smells, is her own blood.

She wakes up in a dark room.

The bed sheets below her are soft, and she faintly smells coffee on the bedside table. A digital clock gave off an eerie red glow to the right side of her bed. Right away, Aubrey knew that she was in Emily's room.

She glanced at the clock; it was 2:53 in the morning.

Standing up, Aubrey hisses when the sharp pain in her lower back creeps all the way up her spine. The pain receptors in her body sending the shock to this arm sockets as well, and particularly her chest.

Mainly areas that transform when she changes.

Oh wait.

Shit.

It's suddenly all coming back to her. The arena, the fight, the crowd, the cheers, the transformation, the flames. But most importantly, the girl.

Wufan shuts her eyes tight, _who the fuck was that girl?_

She stole a quick glance at her phone, which was charged against the wall. Obviously someone knew that she was going to wake up eventually and made sure to charge her phone for her. Aubrey discretely smiled at the kind gesture, how long has she been asleep exactly?

She counts the dates using her fingers, the next show-off fight was on July 31, and today is ..

Discharging her phone from the wall, she takes a look at the date.

"Holy shit today's August 12? I've been asleep for almost 2 weeks?!"

Stretching her aching arms and sore back, Aubrey tugged on a leather jacket as she grabbed her keys from her ripped and burnt jeans, which were piled against a heap of dirty and rugged laundry in the bathroom, and stumbled out of the garage.

Her Ferrari races through the night, engine threatening to burst and explode as she only pushes on the gas pedal harder, wanting to reach the top of the fire peak as quickly as possible. Wanting to feel the fresh water surround her lower back as it washes her worries and pain away. Wanting to look below the entire city and just take in the bright, yet mysterious red night sky at the top of the peak.

Pulling out her phone, she tried to browse through every single news application that she downloaded. Itching to see if any of the articles and competition viewers can update her on what happened.

Much to her disappointment, pretty much everything was about her and the girl on fire.

Every single website, every single article, all the pictures, videos, and even polls were about the fight. Aubrey found herself rolling her eyes as she read the most popular poll on the show-off competition fan page. Posts: **"I bet the bellas' leader is dead."** Spreaded across in an obnoxious red lettering, **"If not then where the hell is she?"**

She gritted her teeth and snorted. _No, she wasn't fucking dead, I'm alive. I wouldn't just die that easily,_ she thought.

Scrolling through the website some more, millions of photos were plastered on the fan page. Pictures of her getting sucked into the flames, pictures of her crashing down on the arena, videos of the crash and flames threatening to swallow up the entire arena. The emergency trucks carrying her away, and all the broken glass, littered everywhere.

Aubrey felt like throwing up, One hundred fifty million views?!

She had never felt so humiliated her entire life. Even if she's unwilling to admit it, but how was this possible? How can someone else beat her bossyness especially by a freshman? How can someone possibly defeat her at her own game? How can someone destroy her within flames if she had the ability to breathe it out spontaneously, just all of it, It all doesn't make sense.

She sighed, and scrolled down the web page some more. Another video showed up, one with a golden sticker beside it, flashing the words **'THIS MONTH'S MOST WATCHED.'**

She clicked it, and instantly wished she didn't.

The video itself was only 20 seconds long. But it contained more truth, and sent more shivers down Aubrey's spine than anything else her entire life.

Flames, flames, flames everywhere. The smoke enveloping the entire arena, dissipating as the audience struggled to breathe properly. Suddenly, all the smoke disappeared, and vanished within the girl's sleeve, she simply rolled up her jacket, and everything was back to normal again. Out of the corner of her eye, Aubrey saw emergency workers hauled her out of the ring with a stretcher. She cringed; she was still in her dragon form, with her wings damaged and her face completely burned.

But the video was zoomed in on the girl's face; close, maybe a little bit too close.

The girl was smiling. In fact, she was smiling insanely hard. Her perfect row of teeth glittering by the stage lights as she politely bowed, and ruffled her hair through the crowd's roaring cheers. She simply stepped down from the arena, and looked straight into the camera with a huge grin on her face.

Aubrey shuddered, It had felt as if the girl was smiling directly at her.

Reminding her of the match.  
Reminding how she'd been defeated.

No, it wasn't a smirk, or a smug smile; it wasn't one of those expressions where the winner tries to constantly remind the defeated loser who won. It was one of those genuine, heartfelt smiles that you experience after your first kiss, or when you stare into your lover's eyes at a wedding ceremony. It was one of those smiles that only appeared once on a blue moon. A smile that was able to cure world hunger, a smile that was able to make the coldest person smile back.

Maybe that's why the girl's smile bothered Aubrey so much.

Because even with all the information inside her head about how this strange girl beat her so badly, she found herself smiling back.

Grinning into her blank phone screen within the darkness of her car, Aubrey found herself to be calm and happy. The adrenaline and painful memories rushing through her veins.

The girl's glistening smile is all that's embedded inside Aubrey's head as she got out of the car and started walking up to the peak.


	3. Chapter 3

The view down from the peak is just as beautiful as always. The city lights literally looking like little dots below her fingertips. She took out a cigarette, and lit it using flames from her nose.

But one thing she later noticed was that the sky is redder that it usually is, and the air around her was way hotter than it used to be.

Aubrey frowned; the exact feeling she had during the competition was going back to her.

A sharp pain suddenly crept up her spine.

Taking off her torn vest and torn shirt, she hissed at the sight of her back.

Blood and pus was now free flowing down like a waterfall, the scabs that had previously healed are now splitting apart once again.

What the hell was going on?

Wincing, she quickly jogged up to the small lake deep within the forest. Hoping to reach the fresh water in time before more pain and blood threatened her already weak body.

Jumping into the water, it only made it worse.

She felt It like her entire body was being ripped apart. The fire within the water rose up all over her chest, the flames burning her entire back as she screamed and quickly leaped out. Her hair and the fabric of her pants splattering sparks all across the night air.

It was only then that Aubrey realized she wasn't alone.

Turning around, she was greeted by the familiar spark of fire that she saw the night she waited 2 hours for Beca radiating from the girl's eyes. She was faced with a familiar mop of soft blonde hair and a bright, glistening smile the night of her downfall.

Oh that smile.

She blinked three times rapidly; it was the girl on fire, looking up at her, only her face above the water.

"Hi," she said as she rosed up all the way above the water, outstretching her hand. Aubrey simply stared.

Her eyes were wandering everywhere.

From the water droplets dripping down from the girl's bare chest all the way down to her navel and how her eyes were on fire. Sparkling in conjunction with the glistening radiance from her perfect teeth.

"I think we've met before." The girl started again.

Aubrey gasped, _her voice, it was so,  
It was so alluring._

One thing for sure, the girl's voice certainly didn't match her stunning smile. Her voice was deep, almost as deep as her own but it projected far more prominently than Aubrey's voice ever could. Her voice was pure, with hints of shyness as the two girls simply stared at each other, no one daring to say anything.

The tension was even more dithering than the girl's flames surrounding her whole.

Aubrey stayed silent, she simply stared at the girl and refused to set foot in the pond.

She watched as the girl swam back and forth, flames and red sparks glistening off her body as the water reached all the way up to neck, and died down when she plummeted under water.

The entire atmosphere was tinted with a reddening glare. The air was suffocating, the heat radiating off every single crevasse that the girl stepped foot on. After few more minutes of silence, she finally spoke up.

"I don't understand you."

The girl turned around as she stood up from the water inhaled some of the fluid to quench her thirst. "What did you say?" She asked as she turned away.

Aubrey coughed, "I said that I don't understand you."

The girl looked away again, "And why is that?"

Aubrey huffed, a puff of smoke escaping her mouth as she tried to patch together her weakening voice. "Well, if you haven't already noticed, I can turn into another form, and a dragon at that. My own special ability is flying, and fire. But how is it possible that I can't bear your flames?"

"I don't know. That's your problem, shouldn't you know?"

Aubrey snorted. "Hell, if I knew. I wouldn't be wasting my time talking to you right now."

The girl frowned, "I wouldn't say that talking to me is a waste of time."

"It is a waste of time to me if you don't tell me what I want to know." Aubrey retorted stubbornly.

The girl sighed, she leaped out of the water carefully. Aubrey's eyes following every single fire spark that she was leaving behind within the liquid. "Ask me a more specific question, and I'll try to answer it."

Aubrey nodded curtly, she had to make the most out of her time since being around the girl in her suffocating heat was unbearable to many extents.

"How do you control the flames?"

"It's my power."

"You don't need to transform first?"

"Depends."

"Then how do you keep it under control at times?"

"I learned overtime."

"Why are they so lethal?"

"Ask my genetics."

"Are you a part of the treble's team now?"

"You mean the DSM team?"

"Oh right, Chloe stepped up as main leader. It's not just Old-Tom anymore."

"Yep."

Aubrey closely examined the girl, her expression was unreadable. But it did present a mixture of happiness and sorrow, her shining grin hiding the mischievous stare in her eyes.

She could clearly tell that the girl was leaving out a great amount of valuable information.

"You're not going to tell me all of it, are you?"

The girl grinned. "Not a chance."

Aubrey nodded, "Fair enough."

She was just about to leave when the deep booming voice behind her projected slowly into her eardrums.

"I can't control the information I know."

Aubrey turned, raising a suspicious eyebrow as she looked at the girl.

"It's not up to me to spread the information. Even if I want to tell you, I can't."

She snorted, "And why is that exactly?"

The girl blinked, "Haven't you heard of FOF?"

Aubrey returned a look of confusion at her question. "Uh .. nope?"

"Well then," the girl snorted. "No wonder I beat you so easily."

Aubrey clenched her teeth and tightened her fists, to become leader for the bellas' team took years and years of training. There is no way that this girl beat her 'that easily.'

"I would watch out if I were you." Aubrey snarled, "Just because you won this once doesn't mean that you'll always be almighty."

The girl laughed, "I don't need to be almighty since everything I could possibly want is already set in stone."

Silence enveloped them again.

"What is FOF?"

The girl grinned again, her obnoxious teeth coming in to perfect view. "Oh so now you're interested?"

Aubrey shuffled her feet, _what fucking game does this girl trying to play?_

Aubrey decided to try the silent method. Often times, people would succumb to her deathly glares of silence and just speak up eventually.

But the girl never faltered, she didn't look bothered by Aubrey's gaze at all; as she continued to smile, grinning widely.

"It stands for fight o' flight."

Aubrey cocked her eyebrows, she's pretty sure that she heard that term before.

"See!" The girl laughed, "I knew that you'd be able to understand after I decode the acronym, there is no possible way that you're leader if you've never heard of it."

She frowned. The term sounded very familiar, but she wasn't exactly sure where she heard it from before.

"Care to explain?"

The girl looked around, her unwavering eyes settling down on Aubrey's .. carefully crafted features and elegantly poised posture. As she felt a dangerous gush of fire within her wings, she realized that she needed to leave the fire peak right away.

"No time, sorry." The girl mumbled. "I have to go."

 _Go? Go where?_ Aubrey thought with a frown, this conversation was just so abrupt and strange.

"Wait! I have more questions!"

But all that was left of the girl were her fire sparks in the night air, dancing on Aubrey's skin;

And a voice echoing from above, "Ask your friend Emily!"


	4. Chapter 4

Aubrey later found herself trapped inside her office as Emily shut the staircase entrance door closed before running upstairs, muffled cries bouncing off the walls.

"That little son of a bitch." She muttered.

She's been nagging the other girl for well over an hour before Emily exploded in rage, telling her to completely drop the subject and just go back to healing her injury. Aubrey simply snorted at the thought, Emily's behavior telling her to forget only made Aubrey much more curious, hasn't she ever heard of the concept reverse psychology?

Outstretching her damaged wings, she got into position to transform into her alternate form; wincing at the sharp pain that travelled through her bones when she released her scales. Aubrey managed to shoot up above all ten levels of solid concrete before coming face to face with a very startled Amy, who was eating sandwiches and staring at the huge hole through the studio floor.

"Where's Emily?"

Amy simply pointed to the black room.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, everywhere as Aubrey stepped foot inside the only room inside the entire building that was darker than her office. Emily's telekinesis bubbles littered all around the walls, leaving very little space to breath, let alone move around.

The blonde knew very clearly that Emily only unleashed these bubbles when she wanted to stay in hiding.

"Don't even try." She whispered, knowing that Emily can hear her clearly.

"I need to know because someone told me to ask you."

"Bree, don't leave me hanging like this."

"I'm not fucking or goofing around."

Finally, a deep growl bounced off the dark walls.

"Neither am I, and if you know what's best for your own good, I suggest that you don't ask me anymore."

Aubrey sighed, negotiating with Emily was so frustrating. Once she had her mind made up, there was no going back.

"Just go and get some rest bree, our next competition is coming up and the crowd is awaiting your possible comeback."

Aubrey scoffed lowly, most of the planet thinks that she's dead, as if a comeback was even anticipated.

"Are you going now?"

"Em, the person that told me to ask you is the girl I competed with at the match."

 _Silence._

Emily finally emerged from the shadows.

"You what? You faced her again .. after that match! when was this? How did you possibly?! Aubrey you're so stupid! You could have died! Especially since you're not even properly healed yet." Emily was talking furiously now, her face contorted into a pained and worrisome expression as she appeared within a bubble and immediately rushed to Aubrey's side.

"I'm fine Em, she didn't harm me."

"Why did you even go to see her in the first place?" Emily deadpanned, her facial features dark and gloomy.

"Because fire peak is the only place where I can think properly, I had no fucking idea that the girl would be there too .. "

Emily glared and mumbled, "Did the girl mention anything about DSM?" Aubrey shook her head. Emily breathed a sign of relief, "I'll tell you what I know, but I don't guarantee that you'll like it, considering your ego."

Aubrey frowned, _what was that suppose to mean?_

"Basically." Emily started, "The fight o' flight is a specialized group of metabolized bodily reactions that only supreme fighters are capable of. But because they're so strong, they're all locked up somewhere beyond our planet. I think that the association is called Das Sound Machines, otherwise known DSM."

"Machines?" Aubrey skeptically asked.

"Yeah, some of the fighters powers are manufactured or reduced in order to keep them under control. Anyone who knows of the fight o' flight would have been someone that has clearly stepped down from the DSM association, since they're so secretive from the rest of the planets regarding their experiment."

Aubrey was skeptical once again, "Wait so, if you know about this, does that mean that you were once a DSM?" 

Emily's expression was unreadable; Aubrey immediately regretted asking the question because her teammate looked extremely uncomfortable, even a little bit sad.

"It's complicated." Emily started, "I was bought down because of a special request, but there are others that are desperately trying to escape, but haven't done so yet. They're simply waiting in that hellhole with no place to go, just endless days of fighting and sorrow. Not everyone can go in, and likewise, not everyone can go out."

Aubrey was silent, contemplating all this information she just received.

"Each and every year the DSM association comes down to our show-off competition to scout new members; I heard a rumor that they were suppose to scout the winning leader at the International century fight 2 weeks ago, which was going to be you. but, she beat you to it."

Aubrey clenched her jaw, "Great, so I'm humiliated and injured, with a big chance for me to join the DSM association slipping by, all because of this stupid girl?"

Emily gasped, "Geez. She's more than a girl; you have no idea what she's capable of. For someone so young to be scouted into DSM, and being able to successfully escape, that's already something extremely impressive."

Aubrey sighed; maybe she shouldn't be making so many assumptions this fast.

"But what I don't understand is that .. " Aubrey huffed, "Why are people so desperate to leave the association?"

Emily paused, trying to pick her words carefully in order to answer Aubrey question.

"Well, I guess mainly because the headquarters constantly forces its fighters to be 'test-subjects' to elaborate a variety of different responses. If not controlled properly, one can die, or possibly go mentally insane. The only solution that is known to dissipate mental disorders created by the experiment would be to sell your eternal life to the association, promising to become their test subject forever. It's an easy enough oath to swear on, but a tricky one to get out of if you're not careful."

"Okay so, they are forced to fight in order to test out a theory, what's so bad about that?"

Emily sighed in exasperation, "You're missing the point, this experiment itself is a death threat. They force people like us to fight every single day. Amy always complains about fighting at the bare minimum once every 2 weeks is a pain in the ass, well imagine if you had to fight every day, and a minimum amount of 3 times per day if you're lucky."

Aubrey cringed; the thought of fighting every eight or so hours was pretty brutal, she couldn't argue with that.

Emily started again, "A mad scientist discovered this response around three centuries ago. He stated that animals, or basically anyone capable of fighting, will react to certain dangerous situations with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system. Each fighter will have about 0.1 milliseconds to decided if they wish to fight o' flight. If you decide to fight, the response will adapt to a general syndrome and regulate stress responses in order for you to become more aggressive and masochistic than usual. This is extremely dangerous because so many fighters who constantly pick the fight response, wear themselves out overtime and die because of extreme aggression, depression, or masochism wishing to experience pain or suicide."

Aubrey nodded, this experiment, it sounds interesting so far, not to mention oddly familiar. "So then, what does the flight response do?"

Emily cringed, "To tell the truth, the flight response is just as bad. Most people don't resort to the flight response because it's a sign of weakness. And those who do are usually the ones who end up escaping, but may regret it later since some of their pride and power is lost. But it basically is the exact opposite of the symptoms within the fight response. Many fighters who flight are called 'fleers', they get sucked into a vicious cycle of constant depression and social isolation, some even resulting to dangerous substance abuse."

"Is it hard to see who's a fighter and who's a fleer?"

Emily nodded, "Up to a certain extent. Most fighters are not afraid to flaunt themselves, but most fleers hide within the shadows; they're usually the people that you would least expect to be a fleer, mostly because it's always the strongest fighters that choose to flee. They can see deep within, beyond the walls and into the experiment's actual intentions, it's important to get out as soon as possible."

Aubrey frowned, "So if, these fleers realize the danger of the response, why would you say that being a fleer is bad?"

Emily was starting to tremble again, her eyes glassy and fixed deep within her thoughts as she struggled to keep her composure.

"Because .. because I have first hand experience."

The blonde didn't say anything.

Emily quickly regained her composure as she informed Aubrey in a hushed and secretive tone of voice. "The DSM association, they are ferocious animals. They are killers. The play mind games with you and torture fighters for entertainment. They torment people who are weak and make them feel like they're worthless and pathetic. Everything they do is based off ranking and people are destroyed, killed, abolished on a daily basis without a trace."

Aubrey shivered a little bit, she had never heard Emily speak like this before and it was worrying her.

"Listen, promise me that you will not come face to face with anyone from the DSM association okay? Because I know for a fact that the scouts are disappointed that they couldn't scout you last time, so they had to settle for Chloe instead. But promise me that you will not step foot out of this building until the next competition. Those scouts can be anywhere, and I can sense that they want their hands on you. And once they do that, there's no going back."

Aubrey's head was a complete jumble of emotions, she didn't know what to think, or how to process all of this information.

 _Wait, what did Emily just said?_

"Chloe .. ?" Aubrey stood up abruptly, "Chloe was scouted?"

"Well yes." Emily said as a matter-of-factly, a confused expression decorating her face. "Tom had been a DSM before but he fled, Donald wasn't strong enough, Benji was injured pretty badly, and Jesse's powers were incredibly overrated since there are so many light forces out there, so they had to scout .. Chloe."

Emily looked around as she rambled on into absolute darkness, _where did Aubrey go?_


	5. Chapter 5

Aubrey zoomed through the morning fog that was quickly swallowing up the entire peak, the wheels of her car screeching to a complete oblivion as she tried to go faster with the music cranked up on all time high and the thoughts in her mind whirling like a cacophony of jumbled emotions.

Chloe had sold her eternity to DSM, and it was all her fault.

Still though, the girl on fire didn't fully understand why they chose to scout Chloe. Emily explained it quite well, Chloe's powers weren't the most impressive and she certainly doesn't believe that Chloe can really outdo any of the previous scouts anyways; so why waste the effort to scout Chloe when they can just wait until the next competition to scout someone better?

But there was still a dark feeling inside Aubrey's chest as she soon realized that maybe, Chloe has been hiding her powers the entire time. Waiting to showcase them when an actual suitable opportunity arises, just like the girl on fire.

Her hands gripped the steering wheel harder as the girl's friendly face and cheekish grin arrived inside her mind. The sparks radiating from her fiery skin littering the morning air as she shook the thoughts away, and sped up her car even faster so she doesn't have to wait another second to find answers.

All Aubrey has been lacking lately are answers.

A small voice in the back of her mind told her that it would be wise to speak to the girl again, ask her for her guidance since she's a descendant of DSM. But she had no idea how. Here she was, at the bottom level of the fire peak again wanting to go up and meet the mysterious girl who's probably 5 years older than her to arrive when she could very well get killed in 2 seconds.

Unsure of what to do, she decided to just head up to the fire peak.

Fire peak has always been the most beautiful before sunrise and right after sunset, it was one of those sceneries that Aubrey never got tired of looking at. She loved the soft morning air without warm heat leaking through the mist as the sunrays gently danced upon her face. It was so calming; so alluring in the way that a simple ecosystem could calm down her mind better than any person or drug.

This is her ultimate haven and it will always continue to be.

She outstretched her arms and laid down beside the pond, swirling her fingers into the water, wanting to close her eyes. Her entire body felt so fatigued, but it was impossible to fall asleep because of the scorching heat. She tried to shut her eyes as tight as possible, but ended up blinking back too rapidly when an indiscernible heat crept up into her cornea.

 _What, and how ..  
_  
The girl on fire.

The girl was sitting on a huge lava rock. Her face contorted into a soft, glassy gaze as she stared back at Aubrey, holding her knees up to her chin and gently stroking several bruises that were littered all across her porcelain legs. She looked extremely tired and beaten up, with obvious scratches and blood marks dripping down her face, her flesh ripped open in numerous areas surrounded with blue and purplish splotches.

Aubrey thought it was actually kind of adorable.

She cleared her throat, "Hi again."

"Hi." The girl whispered in a small and weak voice, barely enough for Aubrey to hear.

"'I've been uh .. looking for you." She shifted her gaze nervously as she looked up at the girl, why was she getting so nervous about something like this?

"Yeah, I know." The girl said. Aubrey felt her heart clench, part of the fact that the girl knew reassured Aubrey that she probably already know what she wants. But part of it was also frightening since the girl probably already prepared answers deep inside her mind, in which Aubrey is now unable to trick the girl into telling her extra information.

Silence swallowed them awkwardly as Aubrey stared up at the girl, unsure of how to start the conversation. With the girl just staring down at her in return, a blank expression decorating her face.

She finally decided to just speak up and get to the point, what had she got to lose anyway?

"So uh, I think you probably already know this but umm, Chloe, she .. she got scouted into DSM and I would like to confirm if there was a way to get her back or maybe talk to the DSM representatives. Or .." Aubrey scratched her head awkwardly, she wasn't sure what she was asking and the girl's unwavering gaze certainly didn't help.

"Maybe I can go for her instead." Aubrey finished off.

The girl just stared, her big eyes beholding that familiar fire spark as she hopped down from the rock, and walked closer to Aubrey. But Aubrey immediately started backing up, she could feel the heat radiating from the girl's body and she wasn't too keen on getting burned again.

She stopped right at the edge of the pond, dipped her finger into the water and stared down at her rippling reflection, murmuring in a small voice. "You can't."

"I can't what?" Aubrey asked.

The girl sighed, "You can't. It's not possible for you to get Chloe back nor is it possible for you to go replace her, she's gone. She's gone from this world and you're just going to have to accept it."

Aubrey flinched slightly at the girl's firm words, _gone? forever? There is not a single way to get him back? Not at all?_

"No but .." Aubrey started again, "The reason why she got scouted is because of me, if I hadn't lost to you then they would have scouted me instead. I seriously can't have my bestfriend Chloe be trapped inside DSM; she'd get killed right away. I need to help her escape. Also, one of my closest friends is really in love with her and uhh .. it would be unfortunate to see my friend upset over the fact that Chloe is gone forever. And like you said, I asked Emily about the FOF, and I know the horrible things they do, so there must be a way to get her out of that hell hole."

The girl stood up, a small but painful smile playing on her face.

"You do realize that, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here right now right? If you hadn't lost to me, then you would be up at DSM instead of Chloe."

Aubrey stopped short, the girl was absolutely right.

Anger, betrayal, despair, hatred just everything. Aubrey could technically feel every single possible negative emotion spring up to her heart in dire distaste. It was the girl's fault that she was here right now and not in DSM. It was the girl's fault that Chloe had to leave them. It was all her fault. This entire thing could have been avoided if the girl hadn't showed up.

But oddly enough, she didn't feel any hatred towards the girl.

"That doesn't matter." She found herself saying, "What I want is to go to the DSM association and just get Chloe out. I don't care what it takes."

"It's not that simple, you're rushing too far ahead." The girl replied simply. "Besides, why do you want to rescue Chloe anyways? I thought the trebles and bellas were rivalries."

"But we trained together to fight since 3 years ago, I've gotten attached to everyone on their team even if we all are competitors. I don't normally get attached to anyone, but training wasn't easy and we went through so many hardships together. I refuse to just see Chloe die like this." Aubrey retorted back.

"Okay." The girl smiled, "Your reasons are pure, guess I can help you."

Aubrey frowned and narrowed her eyes, "What makes you think that my intentions weren't pure to begin with?"

The girl shrugged, "Well I barely know you. All I know is that your power is flight and you can turn into a dragon when you get angry or something, and that's all I know. I don't even know your name, you could be a serial killer on the lose eating humans up in your dragon form. And I wouldn't even know, be best to not trust you so easily at first."

Aubrey laughed, a whole-hearted laugh that she hasn't found himself cracking in a while. Something about the way that the girl described her eating humans in her dragon form when she gets angry was just so amusing.

"Well then." Aubrey smirked, "Since you don't know my name and I don't know your name, why don't we fix that right now? Hello, girl on fire, my name is Aubrey."

The girl stepped closer and shook Aubrey's hand firmly, "Well hello there, dragon who can fly. My name is Kommissar."

Aubrey found herself grinning deep inside, Kommissar .. What an interesting name, a name that rolls so nicely on your tongue and can be engraved so easily, she liked it.

"So .." Aubrey cleared her throat, "Now about getting into DSM and rescuing Chloe, what advice to you have to propose to me in order to go about this, hm?"

Kommissar fell silent; she drummed her fingers back and forth on a nearby rock, trying to think of a right way to respond to the question.

Aubrey felt uneasy.

"I swear to god if you're thinking of lies to tell me right now I will eat you."

Kommissar raised an eyebrow, "Please, dragon girl, I can burn you to pieces in no time, don't even start."

After about 2 minutes, Kommissar had the answer that she was looking for.

"Basically .." Kommissar started, "The gates bounding DSM isn't actually that hard to get in. The main problem is that it's really hard to find. And there's always the odd chance that you might even die if you're looking for far too long and run out of oxygen. If you want to set foot into the DSM planet it self, you have to be escorted by a scouter, or by a past experiment machine who has escaped or deceased to come back on earth."

Aubrey was confused again; did Kommissar said that the past machines could go back?

"Wait but .. why would a past experiment machine want to go back if they tried so hard to escape? Wouldn't going back just be turning themselves back into a DSM again?"

Kommissar shrugged, "Well it depends on the machine I guess. I've seen some people that feel like they have no purpose when they're not fighting, so they hate life on earth and chooses to return to DSM in order to constantly fight and live off adrenaline. But the people who do that are usually part of the fight response. And DSM doesn't take all of them back since they only want the best fighters to be used for the experiments. As for the flight response escapees…pretty much no one goes back, because flight response-prone people are really hard to find and DSM had to replenish for the great loss if they lose more flight response people. That's why they treat them so well. If a flight person goes back, DSM wouldn't force them to join again since they can't actually touch them physically in extraterrestrial space. But it's extremely dangerous for a flight person to come face to face with a DSM scout on earth because once they cross into the atmosphere, they can make you do anything and drag you back into being a DSM again."

Aubrey nodded at the information she just learned, it all made sense, she suppose. How DSM has such a strict policy on not forcing flight people; since they already hate the association enough but if the fleers are vulnerable to the scouts on earth then ..

"Wait .." Aubrey started up again. "So if fleers are not capable of protection from the DSM scouts when they're on earth; doesn't that mean that Emily, Tom, Jesse, and you .. all have to hide constantly when you're on earth?"

Kommissar was quiet, almost too quiet. No words were exchanged between them as Kommissar slowly spoke up.

"I'm not a fleer, Aubrey."

"Oh please," Aubrey rolled her eyes. "You asked me to ask Emily and I did, she confirmed that you're a fleer. Besides, it's not hard to tell with how powerful you are."

Kommissar nodded her head slowly, "Fair enough."

"So then .." Aubrey tried to wrack her head for thoughts, "I can either be scouted by a DSM scout and go up there in exchange for Chloe, or I can get a past fleer to send me up and drop me off."

Kommissar just stared at her.

She cleared her throat. "Well, the next annual century fight competition with DSM scouts passing by to scout would be ..

She froze dead in her sentence.

It would be eleven and half months before the next annual century fight competition.

Aubrey groaned.

How the fuck can she wait that long, eleven and a half months later Chloe would surely be dead or have escaped into some other planet.

Kommissar walked away from the rock and pranced nearby the pond as she spoke. "Well to be quite honest, you wouldn't have to wait that long. Many DSM scouts don't believe the rumours and think that you're still alive; so they've been trying to track you down. If they happen to run into you sometime then bam, they can scout you and you'll see Chloe eventually.

"Oh okay." Aubrey nodded, this actually didn't seem to be too hard.

Kommissar turned to face her, dead straight in the eye. "You don't get it do you?"

Aubrey felt agigated at Kommissar's tone of voice, "Get what?"

Kommissar sighed, "Look I get that you're trying to be all noble and all to help out Chloe, but risking your own life to go up to DSM is incredibly stupid. Because I can guarantee right now that you and Chloe will both end up not escaping if you go. Unlike Jesse and Tom, you're not at the level where you have experience with their deadly ways and they could surely trick you quite easily, even if you're smart. If you just go up there without planning, you'll get defeated and Chloe won't be able to escape either; you basically just allowed DSM to hit two birds with one stone because they not only got Chloe, but you as well, and it was incredibly easy for them. Think about it logically Aubrey, with Chloe's water power and your flying power, do you honestly think that they'll let any of you escape? No, they wouldn't."

Aubrey felt defeated, everything Kommissar said is right. How can she possibly sell her eternity to DSM and expect them to be willing enough to have Chloe go as well?

"Okay then I guess plan B it is, I'm gonna have to go ask a fleer to drop me off."

Kommissar nodded, "Guess so."

Aubrey was deep in thought. She only knew a couple of fleers, and she wasn't sure if it would be adequate of her to ask them to risk their lives in order to send Aubrey ..

Kommissar seemed to be reading Aubrey's mind as she walked back and forth around the pond, "So, any fleers in mind?"

"Well, I'm not exactly sure of the story behind why Emily fled, but I'm pretty sure that she wouldn't want to go back since she told me that she escaped due to 'request', and that's probably really rare."

"Yeah, requests are hard to come by, you best not bother him." Kommissar replied.

"There's also Jesse. I would say that with the exception of Tom, he's probably the strongest on our team since he can control thunder, kind of like Zeus and all. If DSM got their hands on him again, then there's a really good chance that they would take advantage of him."

"And then there's Tom, he's not even on my team so I really don't want to ask him. Besides, based upon our team rivalry thing, I'm pretty sure that he wants me dead, so he might be willing to send me up to DSM for my death. But I doubt that he even cares enough to waste a single minute with me."

"Mhm." Kommissar murmured, "Keep going."

"So that leaves .."

"You."

 _silence._

Kommissar smiled a wide tooth grin, "Yep, me."

Aubrey found herself to be in an extremely awkward situation. She could see that Kommissar wasn't bothered by the fact that she had to escort Aubrey, but she didn't exactly want to ask the girl to risk her life either. She's only escaped for .. god knows how long, and it would be sad if the scouts managed to get their hands on Kommissar and Aubrey both if they're not careful.

"No, no, I couldn't." Aubrey said determinedly, "I can't let you escort me, it's too dangerous, I'll find someone else."

Kommissar snorted, "Who are else are you going to find?"

Aubrey fell silent, because she had absolutely no idea.

"I don't know," she said truthfully. "But I know that I'll find someone eventually, and hopefully someone that I don't know too well so I wouldn't be attached to them and get hurt if I knew that they risked their life for me."

For the next 5 minutes, Kommissar said nothing.

Aubrey held her breath, did she said something wrong?

Kommissar looked up, a hint of moisture hinting in her eyes; "What do you mean by someone that you're not attached to? You're not attached to me, we just met."

"No," Aubrey retorted firmly. "I'm not attached to you. But I don't want you to go back because of me either. You tried so hard to escape, and since your powers are strong, DSM would do anything to not let you escape after dropping me off. And like you said, DSM might trick us and end up getting both of us as machines if we're not careful, I can't let you risk that for me."

 _silence._

"But .."

"But what?" Aubrey asked.

Kommissar didn't speak until she was only inches away from Aubrey's face.

"I was the girl who humiliated you, don't you want to get rid of me?" Kommissar said with a small whisper.

"No." Aubrey said, "I want to learn from you."


	6. Chapter 6

The two of them decided to head back to the bellas' apartment complex so they can sort out a plan with the rest of the fighters, hopefully being able to put everyone's power into use. Aubrey felt a little bit unsure with the fact that Emily purposely warned her about the girl, and now she was taking her back to the competition club as an accomplice .. but considering her options, she just didn't give a fuck anymore since they don't have a lot of time and Kommissar is the closest thing to a helpful fleer.

"Hey uh, do you have any music?"

Aubrey hummed a reply as she pressed play.

Kommissar frowned, _what kind of music is this .._

Aubrey obviously heard a strange silence as she switched off the cd, "What, you don't like it?"

Kommissar shrugged, she could recognize that the band was Maroon5 by the song but she wasn't really into that kind of music.

"Do you uh, have any rap songs?"

Aubrey snorted, "Of course, who do you like?"

"A lot of people, but most of them are dead now. I'm not sure if you heard of them or not."

"Try me."

"Most of them were American rappers, but my absolute favorite is Eminem."

Aubrey shifted in his seat, "Haven't heard of him."

Kommissar just stared, _Aubrey hasn't heard of Eminem? How can she possibly know about rap then?_

"Okay uhm how about Run-D.M.C? A Tribe Called Quest? Notorious B.I.G? Dead Prez? Cypress Hill? Scarface?"

Aubrey shook her head in oblivion, "Nope, nope, nope, nope, and however other nopes that are necessary to cover every artist you named. Are you sure that they're even popular rap artists?"

Kommissar huffed; _well then, guess Aubrey just has terrible taste in music._

"No need to be sour, don't you have any other music genres that you like?"

Kommissar rolled her eyes, "Like what?"

Aubrey shrugged, "I don't know, maybe alternative rock? Indie music? Pop? Soft rock? Blues?"

"Uh .. I do listen to some old soft rock songs, my favorite artist is Jason Mraz."

Aubrey's face lit up, _but she's German eh?_ "Oh, I actually have some of his songs in my albums somewhere."

Kommissar laughed, "Aubrey we're in the 24th century and you still listen to music from albums? How old school can you get, seriously."

Aubrey shrugged, "I don't know, but I find value in keeping songs in tact with the albums. It's convenient because things are nice and organized."

The two sat in comfortable silence as they sped along the road with Jason's voice softly playing in the background.

"I won't give up .. on .. us .. even if the skies .. get .. rough .. " Kommissar sang along quietly to music as she hummed the tune. Her eyes screwed shut as she quietly drummed her feet along to the music, tapping her fingers on her thighs and forming a nice, rhythmic tone.

Aubrey desperately wanted to close her eyes and just enjoy the girl's voice. It wasn't soft like Jason's, nor was it too overly rough. It was deep, but just the right amount of soothing and melodic.

And suddenly, she stopped.

Aubrey turned around and frowned, "Why'd you stop singing?

Kommissar blushed, "Well .. you closed your eyes and you weren't even paying attention to the road. And that's pretty dangerous so .. just get back to driving and stop listening to me sing."

Aubrey looked down and cursed herself deep within her mind; did she actually just let Kommissar catch her enjoying her singing? She's going to have to be sneakier than that in the future so she doesn't get attached

"Oh no, don't worry." Aubrey said as she cleared her throat, "You can just sing badly. That way, I'll be desperate to block you out, not be engrossed by your voice.

Kommissar grinned, her smile lighting up the entire car. "I'll do it."  
"I'm still giving you all my love…I'm still looking up…"

"Cause even the stars they burnn .."

"Some fall to the earthh .."

"We've got a lot to learnn."

The next thing Aubrey knew, She and the girl exploded into a cacophony of hilarious laughter and obnoxious snorts as she found herself unable to breathe properly. Kommissar's face contorting into a hilarious expression as her eyes scrunched together and tried her absolute hardest to hold out the last note, but fell back on the leather seats yelping when her throat cracked and left her speechless for good. Aubrey just laughed at Kommissar incredible stupidity as she found herself grinning largely, one of those smiles where her gums are showing and shr can't help but to chuckle along.

She later realized that this is the third time that Kommissar has made her grin like a stupid idiot within 6 hours of actually meeting the girl.

Aubrey stopped her laughing and straightened her back in her seat. _Get yourself together_ , she thought. _This is just some random fleer German that you met who's going to help you get Chloe back, don't lose your sense of dignity._

Kommissar frowned as she saw Aubrey's pained expression and her eyebrows furrowed into a deep, worried line when she stopped singing.

The music stopped and the car was silent for the rest of the ride.

Kommissar stared fearlessly up from her seat, looking at the 4 pairs of eyes staring intently at her. They were definitely not welcoming eyes.

"Let's just cut to the chase, how are you going to help us." Jesse said with a bland voice. She would much rather be, anywhere but here right now.

"I'm a fleer, all the help you need." Kommissar replied nonchalantly.

"What makes you think that you're capable of going up there huh? I can bet this entire god damn building that you're just as cowardly as the rest of us, you wouldn't want to go up there." Stacie mocked the girl.

"Maybe not." Kommissar said emotionlessly, "But I'm not afraid because they can't touch me up there, I have nothing to lose. Only when it's down here, on this pathetic planet where they can hurt me, then I can be a coward."

Amy frowned, "In that case, Emily and Jesse both can go up there. If we already have them, why do we need you?"

Emily coughed up from her corner seat, "Correction, I am not going. And I never will."

"Okay then, we have Jesse." Amy suggested.

Kommissar glanced at Aubrey, the barden blonde was just leaning against a wall, not paying attention as they both knew that they already went over this back around the fire peak.

Jesse shifted in his seat and stood up, "No," he said. "We need him."

Kommissar smirked; Jesse was the smart one of the bunch.

Jesse walked closer.

"I know what you're thinking, and I know why I can't go up. So, yes, I accept your help, but this does not mean that you're part of our team. Stay with us and get this sorted out, and then you're free to go."

Kommissar clapped her hands in joy, "Sounds like a plan, at least some of you people are not dense."

Stacie was just about to protest when Emily pulled her back and said calmly: "Let it go."

"Bree, if you're thinking of going up to DSM and exchanging yourself for Chloe, please just go kill yourself." Jesse spoke up from drinking his hot tea.

A gasp was heard from Amy as she hit Jesse on the shoulder and started rambling about how Jesse shouldn't be so mean to his dearest shits. Aubrey however, remained still and didn't even lift an eyebrow.

"Is there a problem with my plan, Jesse?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Care to elaborate?"

Jesse put his mug down, "Certainly."

The whole entire room was silent as everyone held their breath.

"You people give the DSM association way too much credit. The truth is, they're not hard to trick if you know what you're doing. By exchanging yourself for Chloe, you're just letting them win. Why not play with them a little bit? Show them what you're capable of since it's possible."

 _silence._

"No no no no." Emily spoke up, "There is absolutely no way in hell that Aubrey is going up there and playing mind games with DSM. They will destroy her if they find out. I don't care how strong or how much experience you have Jesse, I'm not letting him do this."

Kommissar stayed in the corner and stared at Emily, why was she so flustered about DSM all the time? She wondered what treatment DSM gave to Emily to make her be filled with so much hatred like this.

Aubrey left her stance on the wall and walked up closer to the main group, "I'm listening."

"DSM only wants the best, and by best, I mean people that are versatile. As of this moment, they have way too many fighters in the response team; and they're looking for more flighters. So if you go up there, and you volunteer to be scouted, they're going to test your abilities first. All you have to do is perform fight instead of flight, while making sure that your fighting skills and powers are extremely generic. That way, they won't want you, they'll be eager to get rid of you."

 _silence._

"I don't get it." Amy spoke up. "If Aubrey just goes and fights, and proves that she's a typical generic fighter, what's the point? How will this help us rescue the redhead?"

Jesse started sipping his tea again as he looked at the australian straight in the eye. "Simple, we get Aubrey to fight Chloe."

Aubrey turned her head, "I can work with that, I've fought with her in competitions before."

"Yes but Bree, you have to injure her severely, you have to make sure that you almost kill Chloe, fight with her until she's unable to breathe and passes out. Then DSM will simply try and dispose of her body. When they do that, just sneak into the operation room and haul her away before sunrise. you can then carry her back down onto earth with Kommissar scouting you back by the DSM association gate."

 _silence._

"For someone so calm you sure are pretty gory." Stacie joked.

Jesse shrugged, "I try."

"There is just one more problem." Amy retorted. "How can Aubrey survive the drug training they put fighters through? Everyone has to go through that and she has no experience, she's not even a legitimate fighter."

Silence fell upon the room again, now that was one question that no one thought of, and it was probably the most important one.

"Wait what? What drug test do I have to go through?"

"It's a pretty big deal." Jesse sighed. "If you want to trick DSM then this is the one test that you can't miss. I suppose that our entire plan will be based upon this one test, so we'd have to train you first."

Stacie flinched, "No Jesse, we can't .. it's just."

"Doesn't matter," Jesse replied. "If she wants to fake her way into being labeled a fighter, she's going to have to trick the DSM representatives based upon her genetic information and nervous system capabilities that she really is one. We have to get her accustomed to the symptoms of the drugs and the after-effects first before she can head up there."

"We have another problem." Emily suddenly said.

Stacie groaned.

"It says on the headlines recently that anyone stepping within the borders of the DSM association needs to do a drug test. Whether you're a fighter or not, you have to do one. So if Kommissar is bringing Aubrey up there, technically she needs to be accustomed to the test as well." Emily finished.

Jesse nodded, "So that means Kommissar and Aubrey both have to get accustomed to the drug test first and prepare for the response. But I would presume that Kommissar has more experience since she already got tested once."

"Sure did," Kommissar agreed. "But I was labeled a flighter that time and it did me no good. So this time, we're going to have to make sure that my result is fighter so they don't keep me forever. Or at least try to, like last time."

"How are we going to train them to pass the drug test exactly?" Emily questioned.

Jesse sat back. "Simple, we inject them with the Catecholamine drug; hopefully it'll raise their adrenaline and noradrenaline levels to facilitate responses for violent reactions. That way, they'll be forced to live forever in the fight response; getting acquainted with the symptoms ahead of time so that when DSM tests them with the glucocorticoid hormone, the result will show that they are intended fighters since the mineralocorticoid receptors will be expressed differently, based upon the sudden changes of course. When it targets the hypothalamus, the HPA axis changes, allowing Aubrey and Kommissar both to be aggressive and violent at the right times, so that they can facilitate the response when a fight starts."

"Violent and aggressive? Jesse, we don't want to risk aggression when it comes to Aubrey, she can hardly control it as it is."

"Don't worry," Jesse shrugged. "Earth fighters who have come down as fleers use Catecholamine all the time. It's not that big of a deal. And plus, we have some anyways."

Stacie flinched.

Aubrey narrowed her eyes, "We have some?"

Jesse nodded.  
Aubrey glared around the room.

"Em, y-you don't need it."

"Jess, you're the strongest out of all of us with the exception of Kommissar maybe .. and Kommissar, you guys don't even know her so she can't have any, and—"

"Stacie."

Aubrey raised her fists, throwing a hardened punch straight at Stacie's jaw as the girl tumbled back and grabbed her reddened face in pain. "What the fuck is wrong with you, keeping a secret as big as this from us. Why didn't you tell me before? Is this how you've been winning all your fight club matches lately? Because you're fucking high on drugs all the time?"

"We, we didn't mean to." Amy stuttered, looking at the blood pouring viciously out of Stacie's lips from the punch with a terrified expression.

Aubrey glared back at Amy, "You too?"

Amy nodded sheepishly.

"You two, were both fleers?"

The expression on Stacie's face is deadly enough to melt ice.

"Yes, we are Bree." Stacie snapped as she wiped some blood off her mouth. "And as if you haven't noticed, everyone on our team is a fleer except for you and Beca. Which is why I don't even understand why you're the leader. You're weak, and you're incapable of self-control. If you were strong, you would have been part of DSM years ago instead of just hearing about it now."

No one said anything.

Finally, Aubrey broke the silence.

"Where is Beca?"

"She left for the South two days after Chloe got scouted; apparently the power attraction is so strong that part of Beca was taken with Chloe." Emily explained.

Aubrey clicked her tongue. So if she succeeded, she'd be able to bring back both the brunette and the redhead.

At least something good came out of this.

"Jesse, how much time do we need to get fully accustomed to the drug tests?"

Jesse stood up, dusted some muffin crumbs off his dress pants and did a mental calculation using his fingers. "I would say approximately 10 days and 19 hours."

"Okay then," Aubrey agreed. "I guess we better start."

Jesse grinned and took out two packets of Catecholamine from Stacie's pants pocket; earning a grunted noise of disapproval from the taller brunette.

"Aubrey and Kommissar, welcome to the fight o' flight response."

 **A/N: I know this ones kinda short, but don't worry I'll post chapter 7 soon! I don't much talk btw xD**


	7. Chapter 7

Day 1: August 14th, 2147 [Fight o' Flight Training]  
Countdown until release: 9 days and 10 hours

Response 1: Acceleration of Heart and Lung Action

It's noon when they finally start training, the soft thuds of rain splashing against Aubrey's black painted windows when she slowly opens her eyes. She dragged herself up and threw on a pair of sweat pants, seeing that everyone has already arrived in the studio.

"You're late." Emily snapped.

Aubrey shrugged, "You're lucky I'm even here, I normally don't wake up until 4pm."

Emily rolled her eyes, "This whole entire thing was your idea and you're not even going to try?"

"Who cares, it's just catecholamine drug symptoms we're working on in the early stages, shouldn't be too big of a hassle .. and where's Kommissar?"

"She went to get some lunch. Unlike you, the rest of the world woke up 4 hours ago."

Aubrey headed to the dining hall.

"The symptoms involved today that you must overcome is acceleration of your heart and lungs; being the easiest one to control since it's fairly mild, and only present as an emotional cause. The recommended doses are 3mL of hormone injections with 10mL of water and 1.5mL of mineralocorticoid receptor centrifuge solution. Amy already got it ready for you guys, good luck."

Jesse passed two shot glasses to Kommissar and Aubrey, the clear liquid glistening in the mild afternoon sunlight as Jesse continued to talk.

"You must pay attention to your heart beat and breathing patterns, the symptoms should pressure you to have minor heartaches and trouble breathing. But the faster you learn to control it, the faster it stops. The symptoms will last for approximately 24 hours before the next fight training dose is released, understand?"

They both nodded.

"We've agreed to keep both of you locked up in a room with no human contact except each other; so that you can get use to the feeling of having to suffer through drug symptoms together similar to when you undergo the actual drug testing in DSM. The two of you are not allowed to leave the room until tomorrow at 12:30pm. Emily will come down and get you guys when the time comes."

"Any questions?" Amy asked enthusiastically.

"Just one." Kommissar piped up, "Which room will we be staying in?"

Jesse scratched his chin. "Stacie suggested Aubrey's office since you two shouldn't be disturbed so you can work on your group work dynamics; and I couldn't agree more."

Aubrey gritted her teeth, _that son of a bitch_.

"I think your office is the most depressing thing I've ever seen."

"Thanks."

Everywhere the German looked, it was black black black and more black, just sheer black, pure black, solid black, nothing but black black black.

"How are we suppose to see anything in here? Even your windows are painted black."

Aubrey snorted, "Your power is fire, if the darkness really bothers you, then just light something up."

Kommissar winced, "I can't, it's raining."

Aubrey's ears perked up.

"Oh, so there are other forces that can defeat your powers."

Kommissar made a face, "Obviously, and It's really cold in here too."

Aubrey stood up and walked to the far corner while touching her hand on the walls. "Not really, I guess the response is probably starting then."

"The symptoms are suppose to be acceleration of heartbeat and trouble breathing, not coldness."

Aubrey walked back, "Unfortunately for you, I guess you're stuck with a third symptom too."

Kommissar didn't say anything.

The two sat in silence for about 10 minutes before the symptoms kicked into Aubrey's system.

At first it was mild, easy to control with just a little bit of a ragged breathing, but as time caught on, Aubrey felt like she was suffocating. Due to the lack of oxygen to her brain, she found herself feeling dizzy and not being able to think straight. Along with her accelerating heartbeat pounding thunderously within her chest, threatening to burst her pulmonary veins and arteries along with her trachea.

She looked to the side, the German girl wasn't doing much better.

The girl's breathing remained fine and steady, but her lips were trembling uncontrollably. Beads of sweat dripping down from her nose littering the ice cold floor, her breath coming in ghostly whispers of fog into the office air as she rocked back and forth, trying to rub her palms together to create warmth.

But Aubrey was having a whole entire different problem.

As the symptoms continued on, Aubrey's quickening heartbeat trying to pump oxygen throughout her system as quickly as possible was clenching tight. Her lungs wanting to burst wide open as she short circuited, and simply couldn't breathe anymore.

"K-Kommis .. sar." She gasped.

Kommissar immediately rushed to Aubrey's side, she looked genuinely concerned with wide eyes, beautiful pupils fixated on Aubrey's features. Stroking over her forehead and cheek to see if she has a fever, wanting to make sure that she's okay.

"What's wrong? Are you cold?"

"N-no—" Aubrey stammered, "Need, oxygen."

The German panicked, what was she suppose to do? She had no idea how to provide Aubrey with more oxygen and there certainly weren't any oxygen tanks readily available to be used around here.

"Erghhh, ehhh—" Aubrey made a strangled voice in the back of her throat as she collapsed onto Kommissar's lap. Entire body limp and stiff, emotionless and completely lifeless.

She was almost out of air.

Kommissar dipped her head down near the other blonde's ear, and slowly inhaled and exhaled near the older girl's face, trying to surround the area of Aubrey's aura with as much oxygen as possible so he could at least have the energy to sit up. Or at least, the energy to survive until 24 hours is over and the symptoms have worn off.

Kommissar continued to share the same breath with Aubrey. Breathing in and out near her face until the girl opened her eyes, and grasped onto the German's head like it was her only hope of survival.

"Keep going .." Aubrey managed to moan weakly, her lips pressed into a thin line and cold sweat breaking out from her damp forehead.

Oh god, now she was cold too.

Kommissar ghosted even closer to Aubrey's face, until their mouths were only inches apart, and slowly breathed out each puff of air directly onto the girl's lips. She focused intently on providing Aubrey with as much oxygen as possible; while turning her head closer to Aubrey's ear every 3 seconds to breathe out the carbon dioxide so Aubrey wouldn't be affected.

Eventually, Aubrey had enough strength to sit up. She wiped her forehead drenched with cold sweat and glanced at Kommissar.

The girl's eyes were hazy, they were warm with a hint of a spark but it revealed signs of exhaustion. Kommissar had shared her last breath with Aubrey before she felt her lungs give in too, collapsing on the floor, shaking uncontrollably as her body temperature reached below the absolute lowest.

"A-Aubrey .. Br .. ee."

"Shhh," Aubrey found herself whispering, stroking the German's forehead and bringing her closer to her embrace in order to share some of her remaining body heat with Kommissar. "Don't worry, I've got you, I've got you."

The next day, Emily opened the door promptly at 12:30 pm to find Aubrey and Kommissar huddled into a corner, holding onto each other for dear life. Falling asleep within each other's embrace, sharing the same breath.


	8. Chapter 8

Day 2: August 15th, 2147 [Fight o' Flight Training]  
Countdown until release: 8 days and 10 hours

Respone 2: Paling and Flushing

Aubrey shifted uncomfortably in her seat, she wasn't too intent on Emily staring at her intensely during Chloe's explanation of the second response.

She had found out from Kommissar that when Emily came to wake the two of them for the next training day, she saw them huddled together and embracing each other just like their position from the previous night. the German simply brushed it off as she replied nonchalantly that the only reason they did it was because it was necessary for survival, but Aubrey preferred to think deeper into it; and it bothered her greatly how Emily was thinking deeper into it too.

The telekinetic fleer wouldn't stop glancing at Aubrey and Kommissar's way every 5 seconds, as ahe continuously shifted in her seat and eventually left.

"You two are unbelievable, the symptoms yesterday were suppose to be acceleration of heartbeat and trouble breathing. But somehow you guys also ended up suffering from hypothermia, that is not one of the symptoms associated with the fight response."

Aubrey rolled her eyes, "Well then, what is it?"

Jesse coughed, "It's actually one of the symptoms of the flight response, you two had the exact opposite reaction from what is suppose to be right. That is not what we're looking for. You're gonna have to step up your game today or else we'd have to prolong the symptoms test for another week."

Aubrey gritted her teeth, no way in hell is she going to suffer through this bullshit for another 16 days.

"Let's just get this over with." Aubrey muttered as she headed down to her office.

"Oh by the way, Jesse told me to tell you that he doesn't appreciate it when he's trying to explain the symptoms to us and you just walk away."

Aubrey turned around, "And what do you want me to do about it?"

Kommissar pouted, "Just let him finish talking next time. But it's okay, he didn't really mind today because these two symptoms are pretty mild."

Aubrey raised her eyebrows, _mild? As if._

"Jesse said that it's just paling and flushing, our bodies will first not have enough blood flow, so we might feel a bit suffocated just like last time. And we'll also be a little bit cold as well. But since it's not raining today, I should be perfectly fine."

"Yeah? And what's the second response?"

"Uh .. flushing of skin after 12 hours, it's half and half really, so our skin should get really hot. Which this time, _is_ a problem for me since I'm already on fire." Kommissar joked.

Aubrey rolled her eyes, _not funny_.

No words were exchanged between them for the next 12 hours as Kommissar simply stared at the screamo and rock band posters amongst Aubrey's walls. Her skin flushing a lighter colour than normal; not bothering her at all as she simply lit her eyes on fire to keep warm. Aubrey, on the other hand, was having a little bit more difficulty.

If she wanted to stay warm, all she had to do with transform into her dragon form, but she couldn't bring herself to do that. Not here, not in front of the German. She's been told before by Beca that her initial transformation stages after at only 3 days is gruesome since her wings are dry and cackling, and the entire building shakes when she has to spread her entire body out. But it's been almost 2 and a half weeks since her official full transformation, and Aubrey wasn't too intent on transforming into her alter form right now, at least, not here.

So she stayed like that, huddled on the floor, slightly paling skin with trembling lips. But Jesse was right, this wasn't too bad.

The real problem occurred at approximately 1:15 am.

To Aubrey's relief, the paling symptom causing her skin to turn white as snow stopped, but a whole new problem arises.

It was now the flushing syndrome; and Kommissar was bothered by it the second it started.

It had been quiet, with the two of them sitting apart at opposite sides of the room minding their own business. When suddenly, small whimpers and gasps were heard from Kommissar.

The girl's skin was hot, _hothothothot,_ so hot that the air around her seemed to have an eerie red glow to them. It was too unbearably hot for Kommissar as she continued to roll around on the floor. Trying to soak up the coldness of the concrete with no avail, the flushing of her skin caused her entire body to be uncomfortable, raging with fire threatening to burst through.

More whimpers were heard from the German when suddenly, her shirt burst into fire.

This fact didn't bother Kommissar, as she had burned herself numerous times before. But the heat radiating off of her was suffocating Aubrey as well, gruesome memories of the fight seeped into her mind once again and at that moment, she felt almost as hot as Kommissar.

Kommissar growled and tore her long sleeve shirt off, revealing only a black wife beater underneath as her skin lit up the entire room.

Aubrey felt her cheeks redden, she wasn't sure if this is due to the flushing symptom, or her quickening heartbeat and smitten thoughts.

Kommissar seemed a bit better after tearing her shirt off, the scrappy remains of her burned sweater littered on the office floor. Aubrey stayed as close to the far wall as possible, trying to absorb the cold heat from outside by leaning against the concrete and constantly fanning himself every now and then.

Suddenly, Kommissar's pants bursted into flames.

The German yelped, jumping up and quickly striping of her blazing jeans, now nothing but a heap of burning ashes. After 2 awkward minutes, Aubrey just stared at Kommissar's jeans thrown on the ground, not really knowing what to do or say.

She looked at Kommissar, the girl was now only wearing a wife beater and her boxers.

 _godfuckingdamnit_

The first thing she noticed was that the girl was skinny, like really fucking super skinny. And the bruises littered all over her legs that Aubrey saw a couple of days were now glazing red, oozing out pus the colour of blood from Kommissar's skin due to the heat.

She frowned, why does she feel so hot all of the sudden?

"Sorry," the German spoke up. "My sweater and jeans acted as a barrier of the heat between me and you. And now that I took them off, you're gonna have to suffer through the flushing symptoms along with my body heat."

Aubrey shuddered. Yeah, definitely like the fight all over again.

"Whatever, let's just go to sleep anddd! .. stay far away from me."

Kommissar chuckled, "Will do."

It's approximately 3:27 am when Kommissar's wife beater bursts into fire.

Day 3: August 16th, 2358 [Fight o' Flight Training]  
Countdown until release: 7 days and 5 hours

Response 3: Inhibition of Stomach and Upper-intestinal Action: Digestion

"Congratulations, only 7 more days to go." Amy smiled at lunch.

"Not so fast," Jesse said as he walked in. "The full symptoms are kicking in now, the next 7 days will be torture."

Aubrey and Kommissar winced, last night's heat crisis was bad enough when Jesse said that "It was mild".

"Today you'll be receiving an under dose of glucocorticoid hormone. Which means that you'll lose the collective ability to properly digest food and nutrients. The overwhelming hunger will be difficult to survive through since it'll make feel like you haven't eaten in days. So I suggest that you two take lot's of water bottles down there to keep hydrated. Other than that, we'll see you in 24 hours."

Aubrey shrugged, she survived days on without eating, this shouldn't be too bad.

She was wrong, of course.

Because this was torture.

Aubrey's stomach churned and churned and churned, but with no avail did the empty pit inside of her get sated. Grumbling noises came from inside of her and she could only wince as the emptiness swallowed her whole. She had never felt so hollow before in her entire life. This under dose was deadly.

Judging by the way that Kommissar was clutching her stomach, Aubrey could tell that she wasn't doing much better. The girl was sitting huddled in a corner, her lips pressed into a thin line as she rocked back and forth, staring into absent space with her stomach churning just as badly.

Aubrey sighed and walked over to her desk, pulling out a pack of candies from the drawer, and handed one to Kommissar.

The German looked up, her big eyes swimming in curiosity as she took one and popped it into her mouth.

"Wouldn't this be considered cheating?" Kommissar asked.

Aubrey shook her head, "I don't care, I'd rather not die of hunger. And these blood sugar candies helps me regulate my mood swings at points. I eat these all the time, no reason why we can't now."

Kommissar reached into the bag and grabbed another candy, gently hitting Aubrey's shoulder along the way. The two continued to share candy for the entire night. And being like this, Kommissar realized that she saw Aubrey in a new light. She saw the younger, more aggressive flighter as someone different than just a fight club member.

She saw Aubrey's soft side.

"Only 23 hours and 45 more minutes to go, Bree."

Aubrey nodded, "Only."

Day 4: August 17th, 2358 [Fight or Flight Training]  
Countdown until release: 6 days and 14 hours

Response 4: Mydriasis

"Unfortunately Kommissar, this one might be bit of a problem for you. So here, take these heat glasses."

"They are specially designed to keep the fire in your eyes under control when they threaten to burst. Today's symptom is the dilation of the pupils. Careful to keep yourself under control or else you'll burn your entire face."

Aubrey winced deep inside. She kind of felt bad for Kommissar, these responses were not treating her very well.

But the German nodded solemnly and took the heat glasses, already walking away from Jesse as she waved goodbye.

"I'm sorry."

Kommissar turned to face Aubrey, the heat glasses hiding her big green eyes. "What for?"

"I'm sorry that you have to go through the fight response with me. I know that it must be hard for you, being an extremely powerful flighter to this .."

"It's okay," Kommissar murmured. "My training for flight with DSM was just as bad. This kind of stuff is mild compared to what they make you do over there, I'll survive."

Aubrey nodded slowly, she suddenly felt deeply worried, how was Chloe and Beca doing with all this torture in reality?

After 3 hours, Aubrey felt like her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. They felt dry, but wet at the same time as it threatened to get bigger, pupil dilating and absorbing more light. She squinted her eyes at Kommissar, how was she doing?

The older girl was turned away from her, but Aubrey could tell that she was suffering. Her body was shaking uncontrollably every few seconds. _Wait .. is that smoke?  
_  
Aubrey rushed to the German's side and shook her until she sat up. She stared into the darkness of the heat glasses, noticing tiny red sparks behind them, and smoke slowly seeping out.

"Take it off, Kommissar."

"No, it's too dangerous."

"I don't care just take if off."

"No."

"It's hurting you! Take the shit off!"

"No!"

Aubrey sighed, being angry was not the solution.

She scooted closer to Kommissar, holding her hand and gently stroking the girl's burning cheek. "Kommissar, please take them off for me."

After a while, Kommissar hesitantly obeyed, and took the glasses off.

Aubrey gasped at the sight.

Kommissar's eyes were on fire. The fire was spreading all the way across her pupil to her eyebrows, sparks and smoke flying in every direction; radiating warm heat onto Aubrey's skin and tickling her pupils as well.

Suddenly Kommissar's left eye gave out, the dilating pupil releasing so much heat that a huge boom exploded, with Kommissar falling to the ground in pain. Wincing as she tried to put on the heat glasses again while holding her fire eyes.

Aubrey rushed to Kommissar's side on the floor and held her tight, all the while stroking the girl's face gently and blowing cool air from her mouth onto Kommissar's eyes. She opened her black windows and sat near the windowsill in the cool summer night air, fanning Kommissar's eyes occasionally.

"A-Aubrey .. I .."

"Shhhhh, Komm, just close them, just sleep, it'll help."

So the German closed her eyes, and tried to sleep.

After 20 minutes of uncomfortable shifting with Kommissar still in Aubrey's arms, the older girl could tell that she wasn't falling asleep. And that her eyes were starting to burn again.

"Bree, I-I can't fall asleep."

Aubrey looked down at Kommissar, her eyes were angry green, blazing with gushes of fire as her pupils contracted every now and then, shooting smoke up in the air. This girl needs to fall asleep right away, what do people in the olden days do to fall asleep?

Kommissar must have read Aubrey's mind because 10 seconds later, she whispered, in the quietest and softest way possible. "Sing me a song, Aubrey."

Aubrey frowned, sing? She wasn't good at singing. In fact, she preferred to not sing since their attempt on joining the barden and It doesn't suit her. Besides, all the songs she listens to are screamo and rock songs, she didn't think that those songs were very suitable to sing to help someone sleep.

Eventually Aubrey agreed, she desperately wanted to help Kommissar survive this response. "Okay," she said, "What should I sing?"

Kommissar managed to crack a weak grin, "That song, that song that I sang in your car, the song that made you smile."

Aubrey could only nod her head as Kommissar fell into her arms and closed her eyes, the warmth of her body heat resonating deep into Aubrey's veins.

 _When I look into your eyes .. it's like watching the night sky .. or a beautiful sunrise .._

 _There's so much they hold, and just like them old stars._

 _I see that you've come so far, to be right where you are, how old is your soul?_

Aubrey coughed, her voice cracked and she sounded terrible. There is no way that her singing was soothing enough to help someone fall asleep.

Kommissar sat up and frowned slightly, "Bree, geez why did you stop?"

Aubrey glanced at the girl's eyes, with only a hint of light left in them. "Because, I'm not good at singing. It sounds bad."

Kommissar shook her head furiously, "No, no .. don't worry. I like your voice, I think it's beautiful, please keep going."

Aubrey cleared her throat as the German laid down on her thighs and closed her eyes, she started singing again.

 _I won't give up on us .. even if the skies get rough .._

 _I'm giving you all my love, I'm still looking up .._

 _Cause even the stars they burn .. some even fall to the earth .._

 _We've got a lot to learn .. god knows we're worth it .._

 _No, I won't give up .._


	9. Chapter 9

Day 5: August 18th, 2358 [Fight o' Flight Training]

Countdown until release: 5 days and 19 hours

Response 5: Auditory Exclusion

"Unlike the other ones, this one is more of a psychological response. It has been used for many centuries to distract fighters, most of them resulting in despair and insanity. Essentially, the inner hair cells in your ear by the cochlea will stop vibrating, so no sound waves will be passed to your semicircular canals to detect the vibrations and promote sound signals to your temporal lobe. However, the influences under this particular dose states that you will hear voices within the tympanic membrane and eustachian tube through the sympathetic nervous system; resulting in a loss of hearing and possibly mental sounds of death. Today you two will have to work on how to deal with each other when you're both in psychological and emotional fear. But if you try to comfort one another, it'll go by quicker. Any questions? Comments? Concerns?"

"Oddly yes," the German said. "What are the mental sounds of death, exactly?"

Jesse walked away with his mug as he replied, "The sounds that your hippocampus has learned to hate overtime. Otherwise, the sounds throughout your entire life that you never want to hear again will appear in this response."

Aubrey immediately deemed this as the worst response up to date.

If it was anything, the one sense that Aubrey treasured and relied on the most was her hearing. She always found herself to be way more alert in terms of sound rather than sight and smell. Her highly developed sense of hearing has helped her win many fights in the international competition. Even if she listens to a shitload of screamo and rock music, Aubrey's hearing is still excellent.

She had learned to deal with people crying, screaming for help, and the sounds of death overtime. Aubrey doesn't flinch when a person gets killed, nor does she care when she hears the sound of someone dying; she has learned overtime on how to be perfectly emotionless and block everyone out. No, she still refuses to be attached to anyone on this team.

Except Kommissar.

But Kommissar wasn't really part of this team, so Aubrey made an exception for her.

It had started out easy enough, sounds of people crying out her name and begging for her to spare her life as the memories of her killing all the previous fighters sprung up into her mind. Upon hearing this, she didn't even flinch. If she survived the first time hearing these agonizing cries, surely she can survive the second time.

Kommissar, though, wasn't doing too well.

The girl was trembling, rocking back and forth as she broke out into cold sweat and glanced around the room anxiously. Quietly whispering: "No, no, I didn't kill her." Every now and then, her face scrunched up into a painful expression, trying to block the thoughts away.

Aubrey frowned, she desperately wanted to go comfort the girl, but she decided not to.

The one thing that has been lingering on Aubrey's mind ever since day one is her feelings for Kommissar. Aubrey didn't like her or anything; but like Emily said, how is it possible that she's been cold hearted with everyone around her for such a long time, but then when Kommissar shows up, everything changes? It greatly puzzled Aubrey to many extents, she didn't know the German well at all. She doesn't know about her background, nor does she know about Kommissar's experience at DSM, she doesn't know the capabilities of the girl's powers and she certainly didn't know how it's possible that Kommissar's flames can kill her when she's half dragon herself. So then, why does Aubrey feel the need to constantly comfort Kommissar during all these responses? Is it the hormone doses that's affecting her? Or is there truly something about this girl that draws her close?

Exhausted and tired from all these questions, Aubrey leaned against the floor and fell asleep.

\- - -

She woke up in cold sweat, trembling and shaking uncontrollably.

The response was here, she had heard it, she had heard the one thing that she hated the most.

The last thing her father said to her before she left.

 _No, no, no, stop, stop, stop._ Aubrey was starting to panic, the last time she heard these words were 6 years ago. The harsh tone of her father's voice hadn't been present in her memory for almost 5 years. She refuses to hear her now, she refuses to remember when she tried so hard to forget before.

 _"You're .. not .. my daughter .."_

 _No, no, no, no, please don't.  
_  
 _"You're a monster!"_

 _No, no, no, please don't do this, she pleaded._

 _"Don't come back to us."_

 _No, no, no, go away!_ Aubrey squeezed her eyes shut, trying to forget.

 _"Goodbye, Bree."_

That did it.

She lost it, all previous thoughts of control abandoned as Aubrey fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably with her fingers quaking, absorbed in her thick brown hair and trying to pull the roots out. The last words that her father had said to her, the last words that her family passed on before they left her forever. The reason why she chooses to be cold-hearted, the reason why she chooses to never love again, the reason why she enjoys the darkness. No, no, no, it was all coming back to her ..

She cried even harder. Trying to block out all the sounds in her cochlea; she thrashed around, holding onto her hair as if it was the last thing alive, trying to think about the pain within her hair roots as she pulled on them violently. Thinking about anything, _anything_ except those voices ..

A warm pair of arms held her close.

They stayed like that for almost 10 hours.

She opened her eyes, and in front of her, was Kommissar; looking just as dishevelled and terrified as herself. Plugging her ears using candy wrappers from two nights before and gently stroking Aubrey's face.

Kommissar pointed to a sheet of paper on Aubrey's desk as she helped her stand up and walk over to the other side of the room.

And on the paper it said:

 _"I know that you can't hear anything if I try to say it from an external environment, but just know that, I'll be here."  
_  
Aubrey felt her heart clench.

But this was reality, she thought bitterly. As her father's voice vibrated back into her nervous system again, threatening to break her down once more.

 _"Don't come back to us, We don't want you! You have no one."_

"No," Aubrey murmured quietly. "You're wrong, I have someone."

"I have Kommissar."

And as she said the last sentence, Aubrey isn't sure whether or not it's a good or bad thing that the German can't hear her words.

Day 6: August 19th, 2358 [Fight or Flight Training]  
Countdown until release: 4 days and 3 hours

Response 6: Tunnel Vision

"You guys are half way there."

Upon hearing these words, Amy clapped her hands excitedly and patted Kommissar on the back. "Well? How does it feel to be half way done?"

"Thrilling." the German muttered.

"Ecstatic." Aubrey grunted.

"Are the sensory responses going well?"

Kommissar shrugged, "So, they are just as bad as any other response."

"Glad to hear it," Jesse mused. "Because today's response is another sensory trauma experience as well."

Stacie smirked as she stood up to take a shower after lifting weights, "Tunnel vision, guys."

So far this response is the least worrisome out of all the ones Aubrey has been through, which she is highly glad for. She sits at her desk and stares at the black windowsill, fingers drumming along to new song.

Since Aubrey's office is dark, and tunnel vision allows the subject to only see certain things in a field of view, Aubrey was highly used to this response as she's been living in absolute darkness at the lowest level of the apartment building for at least 3 years since she moved in. Even if she can't see anything beyond what she's focused on, everything is black in her office anyways.

It's raining again. The late August rain trickling against the window as thunder roared above, the entire room was dark and eerie.

Kommissar was shivering.

Aubrey could only see Kommissar's face, contorted into a painful expression as she rocked back and forth. Clutching her clothes tighter and trying to preserve heat.

 _No, don't help her_. Aubrey thought to herself, _You can't get attached, you have to refuse it, just ignore her._

And so Aubrey ignored her.

After 4 hours, Aubrey woke up from her nap and looked around. The sky was awfully dark, it seemed as if it's almost midnight when in fact, it was only 5 PM.

She looked at the floor, and there was Kommissar, huddled in the corner, shivering in a tight little ball, her glassy eyes focused on the floor.

 _Ignore her, Ignore her, Ignore her._

But the thoughts of response one flooded into Aubrey's mind. And just like that, every other thing that Kommissar did for Aubrey ever since training began followed. How Kommissar risked her own life by sharing oxygen with her. How Kommissar tightly embraced her to give her heat even when she, herself, was stone cold. How Kommissar encouraged her to let go of her fears and try singing soothingly for once. How Kommissar pushed away the screaming voices deep inside her head to help Aubrey get through her thoughts, comforting and holding her the entire night until the remains of her father's voice have vanished.

 _Why am I so stupid,_ Aubrey thought.

She leaped to Kommissar's side, knocking over her desk chair as she plopped down on the spot beside the shivering girl, and embraced her into a tight hug.

"To-took you, long enough."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Aubrey whispered soothingly as she stroked the girl's smooth hair, placing a small kiss on her temple.

"Why must you always be like this when it rains?"

"It's ju-just .. power struggle t-the rain .. washes away my heat."

Aubrey frowned, she had fire powers too, how come this didn't happen to her?

"Hold me closer." Kommissar murmured softly as she snuggled closer into Aubrey's

arms.

And so Aubrey did, she clutched the German tight. Holding onto the girl's thin hoodie as if it was her own. She rubbed her face against the nape of Kommissar's neck and softly blew hot air onto her cold skin.

"Bree!" Kommissar laughed weakly, "That tickles, stop."

When Kommissar turned around, her big eyes were hazy, unfocused, but still searching, searching for something. She stared into Aubrey's eyes, both of their gazes equally shy and unwavering.

Staying like this, being in Kommissar's embrace like this, staring into her big eyes this up close for once, Aubrey found beauty and trust in the girl on fire.

In the girl that she had only met about a week ago.

But in that moment, it just felt so right.

Aubrey inched closer, and closer, until her breath was mingling among Aubrey's nose. The tunnel vision effect kicking in and only allowing her to stare at Kommissar's lips, and only Kommissar's lips. Nothing else in the world, just her Kommissar, and her Kommissar's cold, coloured lips that were slowly quivering.

And then Aubrey realized that this is how a first kiss should be, in which you only focus on the person's lips, and absolutely nothing else. Where the person you want to kiss is the only thing that you see, the only thing that matters.

Aubrey smiled softly, this was the perfect response for a first kiss.

"Thank you Jesse." She whispered.

Kommissar then closed her eyes.

Aubrey leaned in.

The initial press of lips was cold, cold like winter snow but still left a warm and tingly feeling deep inside Aubrey's heart. Kommissar's lips were trembling, due to the coldness or her nervousness, Aubrey didn't know, but she didn't care. As she slowly shifted her position, she intertwined her fingers in Kommissar's soft hair, feeling the girl shiver and moan underneath her touch.

So they continued on like that, the both leader-like taking turns sucking on each other's lips. Sharing a single warm breath in between their soft and sensual kisses, with Kommissar embroidered deep within Aubrey's arms. Pushing her up against the wall and holding her face close, tongues softly swirling around each others hot and desperate mouths, only to stop and take a breath when they both couldn't do it anymore.

Before Aubrey drifted off into deep slumber, she heard Kommissar shuffling beside her, softly creeping up to her chest and placing a small kiss on her lips.

"I'm glad we got this response, Aubrey."

Aubrey smiled and planted a kiss on Kommissar's lips which were now warm, "Me too."

She hasn't slept this well since 6 years ago.

 **A/N: Geez guys sorry for the result between both of them, It should be Staubrey. and why don't we try to ship both ex(-)/leaders in the movie. Just this story aaaand slight smut coming next chapter!**


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